Horn Wedge

[Wimblees@aol.com]

Problem with a horn wedge

I am rebuilding a Steinway A 6'4".(new block and strings, not a new
soundboard). In the past, I would insert the horn wedge, keep in place with
some masking tape, and after putting on a couple of strings, there was enough
tension to keep the wedge in place. This time, however, the wedge kept
falling out. After every octave or so of stringing, I would tap the wedge
back in place, but it kept falling out. After a while I gave up, and
continued stringing the piano, until I was done with all the trebel strings.
(I string starting in the tenor and then go up). Before I put on the bass
strings, I again tapped in the wedge and this time it stayed in place. When I
tapped in the wedge before I started stringing, the bottom of the wedge was
flush with the bottom of the horn. By the time I had strung the treble I
couldn't get the wedge tapped in all the way. It had about a 1/4" sticking
out.

Here are the questions.
1. How critical is the wedge position in the stringing and tuning process.
Does it have to be in the same place all the time, (flush with the bottom of
the horn, or in the same place before I unstrung the piano), and should I be
concerned about the fact that it is sticking out about 1/4"?
 2. How are some of you keeping the wedge in place during stringing, or
shouldn't I worry about having in place while stringing? (Obviously it needs
to be in place before chipping).
3. Just for curiosity's sake, exactly what is happening when the distance
between the horn and the belly rail closes up? Is the plate moving backwards,
is it compressing, or is the bellyrail, thus the soundboard, etc, moving
towards the front of the piano?


Willem Blees RTP
St. Louis